Clinton Foundation officials gave PolitiFact a doctored version of a 2008 memo lauding its HIV/AIDS program presumably to defend against congressional charges that the charity distributed “watered down” drugs to poor patients on the African continent, according to new information acquired by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group.

The substandard drugs lead back to Ranbaxy, a generic Indian pharmaceutical company. The Clinton Foundation distributed the drugs via its Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), all without telling recipients about the medication’s problems. The AIDS drug program has long been the centerpiece of the Clinton Foundation’s public reputation.

Two days after receiving the altered memo from the Clinton Foundation, PolitiFact published a critique that concluded TheDCNF’s story was “false.” PolitiFact’s critique relied heavily on the altered document, saying the Clinton Foundation “warned sub-Saharan governments and others in its buyer network to take extra steps to confirm the quality of Ranbaxy’s products.”

Changes to the memo’s title were among multiple alterations identified by eSleuth, a Seattle-based computer forensic company that conducted an independent forensic examination of the altered Clinton Foundation memo at the request of TheDCNF.

[dcquiz] “Apparently, the original title was ‘Ranbaxy Talking Points,'” eSleuth head Gordon Mitchell told TheDCNF, adding that it was changed Sept. 21, 2016, to read “Overview: FDA Warnings to Ranbaxy.”

The forensic review also concluded that neither the Clinton Foundation nor CHAI ever posted the document on the Internet prior to TheDCNF’s story, contrary to PolitiFact’s suggestion that the memo was produced as a public document.

“Internet searches with 3 different search engines do not locate the file ‘Ranbaxy memo_RR_27Sep08.pdf’ nor have relevant hits on samples of the contents of this file,” the forensic company said.

“The internal date shows that it was modified on September 21, 2016,” eSleuth told TheDCNF.

TheDCNF’s story was based on a congressional report produced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican and vice-chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

“The possible altering of documents by the Clinton Foundation to defend itself against a congressional report is deeply troubling,” Blackburn told TheDCNF. “My month’s-long investigation determined that the Clinton Foundation’s relationship with Ranbaxy very likely facilitated the distribution of watered down HIV/AIDS medications to patients in sub-Saharan Africa with taxpayer money.”

Blackburn added: “These drugs actually increased the risk of death for patients who used them. The people of Africa and hard-working American taxpayers deserve answers.”

Ranbaxy received “warning letters” by 2008 from the both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) about poor quality standards for its entire generic drug line, including its HIV drugs.

The memo was never intended to be a public statement, according to a former CHAI employee who requested anonymity and spoke with TheDCNF. The former employee is not a detractor of CHAI and defended its performance on AIDS.

“I know at the time the document was meant to assist Clinton Foundation staff in responding to queries by government partners” about the FDA and WHO warnings, the former CHAI employee said. “At the time we were working with many nonprofits on the ground, partners in-country, and they were understandably concerned about what was happening with Ranbaxy. The foundation was doing really good work at the time.”

The use of the doctored document isn’t likely to bolster PolitiFact’s self-proclaimed role as a thorough “fact checking” news organization.

PolitiFact, which is part of the Tampa Bay Times, describes itself as “a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics.” The organization publishes three “fact checking” websites: PolitiFact, PunditFact and its Truth-O-Meter.

The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists urges all reporters to “verify information before releasing it.”

Steps were reportedly taken to verify the authenticity of the Clinton Foundation document, Aaron Sharockman, executive director of PolitiFact, claimed in a statement to TheDCNF.

He told TheDCNF that the memo “was provided to us by the Clinton Foundation in response to our questions,” adding that PolitiFact “verified its authenticity through emails sent and received at that time.”

The forensic study of the Clinton document confirmed that the memo was altered after TheDCNF story was published.

In related developments, PolitiFact will not disclose a highly relevant conflict of interest, TheDCNF reported Sept.27. Pierre Omidyar, a billionaire and a close friend of former President Clinton gave $225,000 for PolitiFact’s “global health” reporting, including its review of TheDCNF story exploring the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS program. Omidyar’s wife Pamela donated $1 million to the Clinton Foundation for its HIV/AIDS work in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.

The Goals of Communism

(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.